The Lion and the Snake
by MercuryLynx
Summary: The would be auror Scorpius Malfoy is failing miserably at Potions. To keep Scorpius on track, Draco has asked Albus Potter, his star student, to tutor his son. What happens when James starts to question why his Gryffindor best friend has been spending more time with his little brother than him? A fun short story about my favorite characters. (An easier read than TFAB:TFAL)
1. An Odd Situation

My arms ached, my legs were sore, my head was ringing and every muscle screamed in protest from the pain of a hard day's worth of dueling. I had a particularly tiring time this afternoon and all I really wanted to do now was collapse in my soft feather bed. More than rest though, what I _needed_ was advice. The benefit of your father being a professor at Hogwarts was of course that you could always seek him out for counsel. The downside was equal in that he would **_always_** be there to scold and discipline you when you did wrong.

I arrived at the door of his private apartments and was about to knock when I heard raised voices coming from inside. It was nearly midnight, who could be in with father at this hour? I leaned in as close as i dared trying to make out what was being said.

"You know you should discuss this with him."

"But how? How can I possibly tell him? Draco he's going to hate me."

"Albus, calm down. Your dad won't hate you, no matter what you say."

"Of course he will. What would you do if Scorpius told you that? I mean really?"

**Merlin**, it was **_him_** again. I nearly gagged when i realized who it was.

Albus Potter, the younger son of the famous war hero, was without a doubt my father's favorite student. In Draco Malfoy's words 'never had there been a more gifted child at the art of brewing'.

Since I was utter shit at potions the obnoxious snake had ended up closer to my dad than me. They were always discussing complex theories and going off to collect rare ingredients in the forbidden forest. The greater irony was that as Harry's best student I ended up spending more time with the Potters than Albus. At least while in school. It had always seemed strange that I had turned out a Gryffindor while he was made a Slytherin.

"Honestly Draco. It wasn't rhetorical. What would you do if Scorpius told you—"

"—Albus stop… someone's outside."

There was a brief moment of silence before the door swung abruptly ajar. The crackling orange came pouring from the opening in warm whispering waves. The soft light of the fire made the stones look almost as though they were glowing. It was deceptively inviting. There was no use pretending i hadn't heard.

"If I told you what father?" I asked, walking into the room and towards the desk. I was acutely aware that the snake was staring.

"We were having a private conversation, nothing to do with _you_" Potter shot squinting at me dangerously. I rolled my eyes, clearly unimpressed. I stepped right up to father and gave him a hug, knowing it would annoy Potter. Father never really understood why I was so affectionate. Rarely did any member of my family show affection towards another.

"It's 11:30 at night, you're in my father's private apartments and I heard my name. I thought I'd come in and see what we were talking about."

"So you _were_ eavesdropping?" Albus asked outraged.

"Fuck off, I'm not a snake like you. I was just about to knock. I'm simply saying I had a right to ask."

"Boys, boys, calm down. Did you need something Scor?"

I blinked, hating that he treated me like this. Why couldn't I just want to come and say hi. Why did I need a reason?

"Not particularly. Do I have to need something from you?" I shot back harshly. I was fast regretting have come at all.

The snake snorted derisively as i spoke. "Of course you do" he hissed. Suddenly realization dawned on his face, making him appear cruelly delighted. "Oh I see! The poor little baby lion wanted a goodnight hug. Maybe he's waiting for a bedtime story too?" I wanted to hit the green eyed shit for that. Father merely glared at Potter, trying to conceal a smile.

"Albus, at least _try_ to be nice. At least while i'm here."

"Yes Professor, I was just leaving anyway. Goodnight Draco… I will see you tomorrow" Albus finished, walking towards the door. He stopped in front of me, staring in that strange way of his for a few moments before finally stepping out. There was something strange about him. There had always been something strange about him.

"Tomorrow's a Friday. There are no potions classes scheduled for tomorrow. Why on earth would you be seeing _him_ on a day you don't even work? Its getting a bit much." Father raised a questioning eyebrow at me before turning his eyes back down to the stacks of parchment on his desk.

"If I'm not mistaken… I believe… he was speaking to you."

"Me? Why on earth would I be seeing that evil little creature?"

"Perhaps" he droned out, continuing casually to grade papers… "because you're failing potions and he's the best person to remedy that."

Fuck... "Oh…" I guess we finally had to deal with this. I had been trying to avoid the subject for as long as possible.

"Oh? is that all you have to say for yourself? You think I might have missed that my son was failing my own subject? Not likely. What will people say if my own blood can't brew ale let alone a decent potion. You know about as much as a first year." Father didn't even sound disappointed so much as annoyed. It still hurt that he showed so little concern for me. I'm sure he cared more about the judgements of his peers than whether or not i succeeded.

"Anyone but him. Please." I didn't want to sound so whiny but I couldn't help it. "I'll find someone else later i promise. I just wanted to speak with you about something."

"Its already decided, now go. I have to grade papers, so whatever you needed to discuss will have to wait."

I scoffed at the dismissal. I really needed advice and this was his response? I clenched and unclenched my fists angrily as he dipped the tip of his quill into the ornate inkwell only to continue scribbling away.

"FINE" I shot angrily storming out.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~)◊(~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Slytherins… I hated the lot of them. Where did they get off acting so—

"Hey lion!" A voice called as I slammed the door to my father's study. I turned and was shocked to see the green eyed snake leaning casually against the wall of the corridor. He didn't look nearly as smug as he had earlier. Either way i still couldn't handle any more of him right now.

"What do _you_ want?" I asked beginning to walk back along the path towards Gryffindor tower. I'd had quite enough of snakes for one day. They were all the same. Heartless, unforgiving, smug, slimy...

"I… I… just… wanted to apologize."

The words took me by such surprise that I nearly tripped down the stairs. He moved to stand in front of me, staring the same way he always did.

His eyes are always so ridiculously green. I've never seen anyone else with eyes the color of moss. He looks… almost fragile right now.

"For what I said earlier… I'm sorry. I just… I needed your dad's advice. I'm dealing with a very personal issue… and I… I may be slightly… _defensive_ right now." I paused seriously at that, contemplating his apology.

"_Mean_ is a better word for it… but I accept. And since you're to be my tutor from now on I figure we might as well get along." I wanted to vomit as the words left me.

"Hahahaha. Draco told you about that did he. His idea of a joke, i assure you i didn't ask to be saddle with a useless lion."

"Wipe that smirk off your face. And don't call my dad by his first name, its creepy."

"Why? You jealous?" He asked irritatingly. This was going to be murderous to endure...

"Not in the least."

"Well _I_'m jealous of you." He whispered quietly as we walked. It was the second time he had shocked me in as many minutes. In all our years at Hogwarts we had hardly exchanged a full two sentences, so it was strange to hear _this_ of all things.

"What? Really? Why?" I watched as he frowned at me.

"Why? Why?" He sputtered. "_I_ started calling _your_ dad Draco ever since the first time I heard _you_ call _my_ dad Harry. I've always been jealous of the way you are with them." I was so surprised to hear the creepy, sneaky, snarky, slippery Slytherin speak so... revealingly. He'd always seemed… I don't know… distant. I couldn't help but give him credit for that.

"Well… maybe I am… a little jealous" I offered in light of his candor. Suddenly he grinned wickedly and I couldn't understand why until he spoke again.

"That was easy. Well of course you're jealous. Look at me. There's little not to be jealous about."

"Ugh… such a shit. Just when you say something that reminds me you're human you turn around and act like a snake." He smiled at that, as though it were a compliment, and for a second I thought I just might be able to like him. There was something really warm about the way he smiled. I had never noticed it before. He was always smirking, so much so that you rarely ever got a chance to see the kindness that poured from his actual smile.

"A snake? Why thank you."

"Merlin preserve me." I sighed. "So when do we start this _tutoring_ business?"

"Humph, tomorrow night…You're dad gave me permission to take you into the forbidden forest."

"Ugh… but tomorrow's a friday. If i'm out all night I'll be too exhausted to go play quidditch with James saturday morning…"

I watched Albus flinch at the statement, realizing how serious he had been. The snake had really felt weird about this for years… well it was an odd relationship our families shared. "What on earth does the forest have to do with potion brewing anyway?" I asked trying to distract him. "Isn't potions just about following recipes?"

"If that were true any imbecile with a cookbook could do it. Why do you think half the students in potions fail even though the recipes are right in front of them?"

"Wait what? You're not just an imbecile with a cookbook?" I asked in feigned shock. He smiled again, which made me smile too.

"Was that witty humor? From a lion? No I'm not just an imbecile with a cookbook, as you most certainly will find out studying under me. Good Night. I'll see you tomorrow in the dungeons before we head into the forest."

With that he vanished down a dark corridor without even leaving me the chance to reply. Could I really survive months of _this_?

* * *

If you like these characters check out my other story. It has a longer more developed plot and the characters are infinitely more complex. I'm dedicating this story to all my TFAB:TFAL reviewers/ followers / readers ... and to... well you know who _you_ are...

This will probably be a 20K story. Updates regularly. I may take suggestions if you care to leave them. I respond to my readers so don't feel too shy to PM me.

Hope you enjoy


	2. I Can't I have to Study

"Hey Scorpius" A familiar voice yelled as its owner raced through the corridors to catch up with me. I don't know how many years I'd known the smiling idiot, but it felt like forever. At least every school term since I started Hogwarts and almost as many of the summers and holidays in between had been spent in his company. There had been beaches, birthdays, flying and untold amounts of laughter. I had no doubt in my mind that he was my best friend in the entire world and would be forever.

"A few of us are gathering tonight to celebrate our win against Hufflepuff, it wouldn't do for our star seeker to miss out on the fun."

"I cant James, I have to study. Im failing potions and I cant afford to slack off now. You know how badly I'm doing."

He eyed me as though anyone in their right mind could have missed how poorly I was doing at potions. Noisy students poured like rivers into the halls as the last classes of the friday finished.

"What? All night?"

"A midnight excursion into the FF."

"Oh come on Scorpius, one night isn't going to make a difference. Besides, a certain someone is going to be there." I grabbed James by the robes and pulled him into an abandoned classroom, flinging the door closed behind us.

"Are you mad? Dont say anything in public, ever."

He merely smiled at me, ignoring my concern. It never failed to disarm me.

"Come on, I was only teasing. Anyway I have a date too. Melody Abbot finally said yes."

"Humph if only to have the peace of you not asking her twenty times a day."

"Shut up. You know she couldn't resist me" He said with that radiant smile of his. "It takes a real lion to tame a girl like her." I rolled my eyes and pulled the door open again, leading us back out into the bustling corridors. The sound of chatter and laughing children was the most welcoming sound i had ever heard. I couldn't fathom how i had managed with the quiet existence of life at the manor. "Did your little dove say yes to you then?"

"I don't know how you got it into your head that i'm interested, because i'm really not. I wouldn't ever have asked." We both continued down the corridor, watching as frightened first years parted in awe before us. Upper class-men must seem a lifetime away. How fast it had all gone by. I could picture the sorting as though it had happened yesterday. The sight of the castle as the boats made their way across the lake. The sight of the floating candles in the great hall. The eerie sound of the hat speaking into my head. The shock and applause when it had yelled 'Gryffindor!'

"Fine, but you should find someone you are actually interested in. It would do you some good little Scorpius. Its really about time" He finished, ruffling my hair playfully. I hated that he was a seventh year. His seniority made him godlike in my eyes. "Don't worry about me Jamie, I'm certain I'll find someone in good time."

Just as the words left my mouth a group of slytherins came creeping around a corner, knocking into us ungracefully as we made to leave the courtyard.

"Watch it snake!" James growled as his brother recovered from the impact. The other students jeered and moved on towards the dungeons while Albus merely turned towards me skeptically, tapping his wand against his wrist to remind me of the time.

"Yes, yes, don't worry. I won't be late Al" I shot tiredly at the green eyed boy. I sighed, shaking my head as the smiling idiot disappeared into the sea of faces behind him. Al's smile was even bigger than James's. It was somehow even more full (if that was possible). These Potters…

I turned back to James, about to resume our conversation, when I received the most suspicious stare he'd ever given me. You'd think by his expression that I was plotting a coup d'état.

"Al? Al? When did _that_ start?" James asked with surprise on his face.

"Don't look so shocked. It was my fathers idea. Who better than his star pupil to make sure i don't fail?"

"But you just called him Al. In all the summers you've been to the house, I don't think I remember either of you saying all of five words to each other. And come to think of it, what you do say to each other here at school tends to be spiteful or argumentative. I would almost go so far as to say you hated him."

"That's not true at all. He's not as bad as all that. You know I don't have it in me to _hate_ anyone. Actually he's kind of funny" I offered, chuckling to myself. That was one reason at least. I didn't really know how to tell my best friend that I actually enjoyed…

"But even I don't call him Al. He's always been… well… off. Merlin knows i don't get him… at all. I mean he is my brother, but you know we never got along. He's closer to Lily and mum than either dad or me."

"So what? You talk as though he were a monster. He's still your little brother. Slytherin are people too… as loath as you are to admit it. He's still human."

"That's news to me. He's by far the most attractive kid in school yet I've never seen him bring friends, or girls or even a stray animal over to the house. He'd invite his professors for holidays if there was a chance of them saying yes. Sometimes I think he doesn't realize what he looks like. That or he must have the social skills of a retarded seal."

"What does his face have to do with _anything_? You sound ridiculous. Lets take you for example. You have loads of friends yet you look like something one of Hagrid's blast ended skrewts excreted."

"Yup, thats why _the_ Melody Abbot agreed to go out with me." I rolled my eyes at that, smiling.

"Well everyone says he has a way of explaining the material that makes potions rather enjoyable. That's all I really care about. And I'm stuck with him for the foreseeable future, so we might as well get along."

"So you can't come to one of the biggest parties of the year because you're going to be studying with my oddball little brother?" James asked before he burst into a fit of roaring laughter. I merely squinted at him as everyone around us stopped to stare. James had always lived without a single concern for what anyone else might think of him.

"Yeah that's pretty much the sum of it." I finished somberly. The party would have been fun. James clapped me on the back and sighed.

"Well… Good luck improving your grades with him as your tutor." I stopped, entirely confused by that. Sometimes James didn't make any sense.

"What on earth are you on about? He's a genius at Potions. If _he_ can't help me, I might as well give up on the idea of becoming an auror. Are you telling me I'm that hopeless?" James smirked and leaned in close enough to whisper, catching me completely off guard.

"I know you well enough by now to tell that every word he says will go into one ear and out the other. Just don't let him catch you drooling. Staring can pass for attentiveness but he'll think you're soft in the head if you drool all over your notes."

"Ha-ha-ha. Hys-ter-i-cal. You know… one day it will be _my_ party, and I will just have to make sure to forget to invite _you_." James looked like he thought himself the funniest creature on the planet. It was a shame he was too coordinated to trip down the stairs. Maybe the slytherin would have pushed him.

"Go, learn potions from the snake until you collapse from exhaustion. Just make sure you make it to practice tomorrow."

"That will be easier for me to do than you. You go, drink yourself into a stupor. It will be fun watching you fall off your broom. Maybe your face will look less like excrement when it hits the ground."

* * *

Chapter subject to editing


	3. Not what I expected

I arrived in front of the stone walls of the dungeon. It was where the Slytherin students were most often seen and so I reasoned had to be the location of their dormitories. I couldn't believe Al had forgotten to give me the password. I waited for a few minutes, hoping a snake would pass by to let me in. Ten minutes passed before I gave up and started shouting profanity at the wall.

"Basilisk fang." I tried, whispering my guess to the cold bricks. "Venom, viper, serpent, ashwinder, python" Nothing seemed to work. I stopped for a moment considering who the slytherin prefects were or whether or not my father the head of the house might have set up this months password. I attempted a few more guesses before cursing when my foot collided angrily against the hard stone. I heard a soft giggle from behind me and shifted to find Albus Potter staring at me from his casual position braced against the corridor wall.

"You find this amusing?"

"You have no idea." I sighed at his words. His smile made me want to hit something.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. Good guesses by the way. All wrong obviously."

"I can't believe you let me go on talking to a wall. We wasted time you could have otherwise been using to teach me."

"Oh well. Ten minutes less you'll spend flying tomorrow." He detached himself smoothly from the carved rock and made his way over to me. "Asp" The dungeon bricks erupted into a sea of moving pieces before the word had even fully slipped from his lips.

"Your own initials? Let me guess, you had the honor of choosing this months password?"

He looked uneasily at me. Wait…

"You're not a prefect."

"I… replace Burke as prefect starting next month."

"But you're not yet. Which means Hogwarts magic would keep you from being able to do that. Who chose your initials as the password?" It was a curious choice. Out of all of the snakes in the animal kingdom why that one? It was obviously done in honor of Albus.

"Erm… I think our head of house might have picked it" Al offered awkwardly as he entered through the open passage. He had conveniently chosen not to say 'your father'

"Well… I guess… you are his best student…" It was beyond strange. I followed into the common area and froze as all eyes flew towards me. Every conversation had stopped the moment they'd seen my Gryffindor scarf. A gloomy looking black haired boy had actually shot up from his seat.

"Who the fuck let the Lion in here?" He looked perturbed by my presence. I peered around the room looking for Albus when instead I spied Lily on the couch closest to the fire. She had draped herself around an adorable blond boy a year her junior. She had barely acknowledged me.

"Sit back down Nott. He's _my_ guest." Al shot, reappearing at the base of a hidden staircase.

"Oh… sorry Potter. I didn't know." Nott looked almost frightened by the smirking Albus. He could barely make eye contact. I swear he nearly tripped as he sat back down in his chair. Al merely smiled at me.

"Come on Scor, its this way" He offered, disappearing behind the curve in the wall. I followed Albus up the stairs, marveling at how far we were climbing.

"Scor?"

"Oh… well… isn't that what your dad calls you?"

"My father doesn't call me that any more. Only James ever uses that name now. I suppose you do too. Anyway… I always thought the dungeons were _beneath_ the black lake. Where are we going?"

"Well… my room isn't technically part of the dungeons proper. Usually the room is reserved for when there's a Slytherin head boy or girl. Well that or if there's a particularly lucky student." We reached a small landing with doors to the left and right. Al slipped a key into the lock of the lefthand door and pushed it open when he heard the click. We entered a beautifully lit chamber with large round windows reminiscent of a ship's lower deck portholes. I realized the shape was due to the fact that the room was situated directly above the surface of the black lake. The other door must have led out onto a terrace or deck. Against the wall was a full sized bed with enough space on each side for a bookshelf and a desk. There was enough rom on the other side of the apartment for a small kitchen and potions station.

"How on earth did you get this apartment? No really. Who did you kill for all this? Unless you slept with somebody instead." Just then I heard a knock on what I had at first assumed was just a closet or bathroom door. Albus walked strait to the desk and picked up a sheet of crisp parchment, reviewing it quietly before calling out to the visitor.

"Come in Professor. I have the paperwork here. All I need is your approval as a teacher and a signature as a parent." My mouth fell slightly agape when Father came into the room dressed in his black and gold pajamas. I saw another set of stairs through the door behind him and realized they must have led up to the chambers of Slytherin's Head of House. This was a guest suite for my dad. Things couldn't get any weirder.

Albus picked up a few phials and slipped them into the pockets of his robes while he casually cast the piece of paper adrift. It flew steadily towards father who signed it midair when it arrived.

"Don't get yourselves killed out there tonight. And please try to teach him something useful Albus. A quick lesson before you head out I think might serve. Goodnight Scorpius. Albus." Father hadn't even waited for a reply before closing the door and heading back to his own room. It took me a moment to recover from the shock of it all.

"You _live_ with my father?"

"_What_? Oh… Hardly. The door _has_ a lock. Your father has been helping me for years with a project of mine. Its easier for me this way. When I'm finished it will revolutionize our entire world. Shall we start a brief lesson before we head out for some fun?" He pulled out two chairs at the semi circular table that served as his desk. I sat down next to him, thinking about how strange this situation was.

"Well you need a good memory to succeed at potions—which I know you have because of how well you do at charms—but its not for the reason you might think. A potions master almost always has a recipe to work from, so whats really important is understanding the ingredients. Once you do, Potions becomes easier than tying your shoes. To best understand—"

"—Wait. How do you know I'm skilled at charms?" I interrupted, surprised that he knew anything at all about me aside from my first and last name. We didn't share a charms section so it was slightly surprising.

"Erm… I think james mentioned it once." He offered frowning at the interruption. "As I was saying. The most important aspect of potions is understanding the properties of the ingredients you are using." He paused, looking up thoughtfully. "I think I'm going to teach you a little differently than I might a normal student. I want you to think of a spiders web" He offered, drawing a nest of lines on the page in front of him. He looked too young to be teaching anyone anything. If I hadn't been sitting right beneath father's room I might have already been distracted by how adorable Albus was. James' comment had annoyed me profoundly. I can't believe he's up in Gryffindor tower setting up for a party.

"Picture each thread running from the center of the web as a property of an ingredient, and the lines that connect them as points of comparison. Each property is like an axis of symmetry, the farther along a point is situated along the line the more potent the property." He spoke so intently that I couldn't bear to interrupt him again. I couldn't for the life of me see how any of this had to do with potions.

"Ok."

He then began casually highlighting the vertical line by drawing over it multiple times with his graphite pencil.

"Lets say this axis represents the property of fire for ashwinder scales." He waved his wand over the paper and the highlighted line turned a dancing shade of orange and red. "A point very deep below the horizon on this line would mean the ingredient confers extraordinary protection from fire" He explained, plotting a point near the bottom of the page. I think I understood.

"While a point higher up above the horizon, would… what, make the drinker _more_ flammable?"

"Exactly!" He shot excitedly, looking up at me with surprise in his eyes. "Well… for the moment you could think of it like that. I can't believe you got it so fast."

"Please don't look _so_ shocked. I'm not as dumb as you might think. I just don't see how any of this relates to Braxter's theory, Flammel's equation, or anything else I failed on my last potions exam."

"Memorizing those stupid rules will get you nowhere. I know them only because I have to. I can make due without ever using Braxter's theory. First tell me what potion you messed up on your practical, then I can explain it using the web. I guarantee you that everything about potions brewing can be determined using this method and a mixture of imagination and common sense." Somehow I doubted his assurances. But… if he was that good at potions I couldn't see how he could be wrong.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll take it a step farther. If you can't _invent_ your own potion after a month of studying this, you win." I smiled. What exactly would I win?

"It was drought of the living dead."

It took about an hour of explaining but he'd gone through a myriad of reasons why half of potions recipes had to be intuitively changed depending on the ingredients, their properties and the type of equipment used. He went through the sedative effects of Valerian root and why it should be added in slices rather than chunks. It was amazing. Every single aspect of the brewing process could be explained using the points on the web. He even connected all the dots for the essence of wormwood and I was surprised to discover the lines formed a constellation. It resembled the spiraling shell of a snail, the astrological symbol for delay and sluggishness. He explained how it actually indicated the overall effective use of wormwood in every potential potion it could be used in. It was wildly fantastic.

"I've never heard anything like this in a potions manual. Come to think of it, I've never heard of _anyone_ teaching potions like this."

"That's because I came up with the web theory." I spun back towards him, watching as his face turned red.

"You came up with this?" I asked completely shocked. "By yourself?"

He started to blush redder at the attention.

"Don't you look at me like that. I manage to fuck up at almost every other subject. At least I have this one thing I'm amazing at. You don't know how many new potions I've invented using these property charts. All I have to do is think of what I want a potion to do and I can use these to figure out in an hour the best ingredients to use and how to combine them." He stopped when he realized he was boasting. It was actually rather adorable.

"Thats absolutely brilliant Al. So this is what my dad has been helping you with? Cataloguing as many property charts as possible?"

"Well not exactly. It started out that way but now we're trying to develop an actual charm to reveal the chart of any given ingredient. That way we wouldn't have to experiment with every ingredient for years just to discover all of their uses. If it works I could change the face of potioneering. We could finally figure out the best uses for the rarest and most potent of ingredients. Basilisk eyes, Unicorn horn, phoenix tears, acromantulae fangs or venom, dragons heart string. It wouldn't just work for potions, it would change the way we enchant objects too. We could figure out the best wood to use for brooms or wands, or even get closer to understanding how the ancient egyptians could enchant rods to shoot lighting or trap spirits in jewels. It would change magic as we know it."

He sounded so passionate, so enthusiastic. His ambition was truly remarkable, and so was he. I had never realized before just how intelligent the shy little boy at James house had been. I was exceptional at charms and DaDa but this was… pure artistry.

I decided to draw a funny little spider in the web, ready to devour a helpless fly. I guess he thought it would be humorous to put my initials on the spider, so he penciled the letters SHM on it. Just like that we were highschool students again. I smiled for a moment then looked back up at him in complete shock.

"You know my middle name?" I asked surprised. This tutoring session was quickly becoming a back and forth of unexpected surprises.

"Of course. How else could I sit all day in class writing you initials next to mine inside of a thousand little hearts if I didn't know your middle name" He asked sarcastically. I laughed at that. "You're nearly as famous as me you know. I would have heard it in a history book somewhere had I not already seen it at the manor. Merlin you lot are stuffy. Monograming your initials on all your clothes. Blecht." I smiled again until the reality of the situation sank in. He'd stayed in my room…

"You stay in my room when you do those summer programs with father?" I felt sick. There had been summers spent with James when Albus had been off on his own. I knew that throughout one of them at least, Albus had been to the manor with two other students to do an internship for father.

"I told you. This whole situation has been a bit weird for years. I think the only reason you haven't noticed is because you've had james as a best friend. If I had a sibling of yours to steal I think I wouldn't have have felt so awkward about it all."

"Yeah but in my room? We have a cascade of other guestrooms you could have used."

"Draco insisted I use yours. He said it was the most comfortable room in the house. Besides do you know how many times I've come home and found a suspicious article of clothing with an all too familiar SHM printed on it? You use my bed when you come over. I just usually move to another room before you arrive."

I thought about that for a moment. I had started this… I had no right to feel weird about how close my father and Albus were… or that he stayed in my room during the summer. I had stolen his brother and father first. I felt a little nauseous. I took a moment to breathe in the smell of the lake air as a breeze drifted through an open window.

When I opened my eyes I realized he had been staring at me

"I would pay a mountain of gold to know what you're thinking right now." I don't know why I said it, but the moment I had I could swear he started to blush again. How could any of the slytherins be afraid of… _him_. He was like a puppy.

"I was just wondering whether you were enjoying the lesson. I know how badly you want to be an auror and for that you need an O or EE at potions." I stopped at that. He really wanted me to do well. I would have hated tutoring another student. Was he really a slytherin? What had happened to the brazen, cheeky kid that snapped and argued with me over the smallest detail? He seemed almost… sweet.

"Are you kidding? You've turned potions into a puzzle. I actually understand what to look for now. Theres a logical flow to the preparation. Its not random at all. I can't wait for whatever surprise is hidden in the Forbidden forest."

"Hah. You're assuming I think you're ready for that. But I'm glad you are enjoying yourself."

"I have a question, if you don't mind."

"Shoot."

"Why are you being so… nice? You always seem so… well for lack of a more sophisticated term… not nice." I had meant it to be humorous. I really thought he would find it funny, but he merely looked sad.

"Here's another lesson. Slytherins… hide their insecurities beneath a torrent of harsh, biting words. The simple truth is that I owe much to your father. On top of that, you're James' best friend. We slytherins don't often get an excuse to treat people decently. Not that Gryffindors are really people." He smiled again, and I had to physically keep myself from kissing him. I shook that thought from my mind. This was James' little brother and there was absolutely no indication…

"You're not at all what I expected." I offered, regaining my composure. I was going to have to show him my discoveries at charms. That or have him watch me duel. I suddenly felt the need to show him what I could do.

"Neither are you."

* * *

These are just a few first chapters. I will wait a week or so to release more. I just thought i'd give you guys a taste of the story. While you are waiting i recommend checking out my other story. Its awesome (no bias obviously XD)

This chapter will be edited when i upload more content next week.

Review and i might write faster. Hope you enjoy.


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